


Unexpected Windfalls

by fermentthemind (cats_cradle6766)



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Ancient Ritual, Demons, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:08:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27200203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cats_cradle6766/pseuds/fermentthemind
Summary: Go to university, they had said. Get an education, they had said. It’ll be fine, they had said. You’ll meet all sorts of people, they had told him.They hadn’t expected Donghyuk to be in Renjun’s life and for Renjun to be all sorts of a stupid reckless boy who does things like try an ancient summoning ritual for, fact check, ademon.
Relationships: Na Jaemin & Huang Ren Jun
Comments: 4
Kudos: 24





	Unexpected Windfalls

**Author's Note:**

> This is for keuroket (ang), who mostly just enables me to do ridiculous things like this. I hope you like this, ang. I did it all for you. 
> 
> The general vibe of this can basically be achieved by listening to [this](https://8tracks.com/clustercharge/if-you-mixed-a-cat-and-an-owl-would-you-call-it-an-owlat-or-a-cowl) or [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BH7AX4xQqAo).
> 
> Not beta'd because I am under no assumptions that this is remotely quality content.

It’s just a bunch of old stupid stuff, Donghyuk had said. It’s not like anything will happen, Donghyuk had laughed. Not like the old scrolls they found in the basement of the library actually _worked_ , Donghyuk had scoffed with the kind of smirk that said ‘maybe trouble, but not today.’

Renjun is never listening to Donghyuk again. 

Let’s break this down. 

Renjun is a first year in university. He lives in the freshman dorm with a bunch of people he’d rather not have to discuss in detail mostly because it’s too stressful to. His roommate is a nice guy named Jeno, with a pleasant smile and calm demeanor. Renjun likes him in as much as he’s pretty sure Jeno won’t mess with his stuff when he’s not in the room.

Orientation had been a lot of awkward introductions more times than Renjun would ever like to repeat in his _life_. He’d met some nice people though. In general, the first few weeks of university had mostly been just trying to figure out how to be friends with a bunch of strangers who are sharing the solidarity of suffering unreasonable textbook prices. 

Of the people Renjun finds himself spending time with, he’d somehow managed to fall into a group of people Jeno seems to be far better at befriending and bringing to the room. That’s how he meets Mark, Yukhei, Tsuyu, Yeri, and, finally, Donghyuk. 

Donghyuk has the kind of soft cute face that makes you think he’s a nice boy who poses no threat from befriending him. It’s a lie, and Renjun feels so betrayed. 

It was Donghyuk who had been the one to convince them all to stay overnight in the library after hours to see what they could dig out of the archives. It was Donghyuk who said Mark was too scared to actually get the creepy book shoved in the back of one of the periodical archives, and Donghyuk who said Yukhei couldn’t translate it. It was Yukhei who had actually been unable to read the material, and that led to Renjun taking pity on him and taking the book instead.

It was Donghyuk who laughed when Renjun translated the text from the old runes that he only knows because his grandmother thought it was an important practical skill he needed (so far, he hasn’t needed it). It was Donghyuk who said the spells and rituals in the book weren’t real, but dared him to try it anyway. It was Donghyuk who said he was scared.

Renjun was scared, but he didn’t exactly feel like admitting that to a group of dudes who all seemed to be in a competition of proving how cool they were to each other. Renjun might have been scared but he wasn’t going to lose to them. 

So, Renjun, aged eighteen and absolutely not knowing what he’s doing, had, because of a dare, set up an ancient ritual from an old and probably cursed book from the basement of the university library. 

Go to university, they had said. Get an education, they had said. It’ll be fine, they had said. You’ll meet all sorts of people, they had told him. 

They hadn’t expected Donghyuk to be in Renjun’s life and for Renjun to be all sorts of a stupid reckless boy who does things like try an ancient summoning ritual for, fact check, a _demon_. 

“Heeeeeey,” eeks out of the cloud of smoke currently billowing from Renjun’s desk where he’d set up the relatively simple to procure supplies for this whole shindig. 

“Well, fuck,” Renjun says. It seems the appropriate thing to say when the bowl he’d stolen from the mess hall currently has bright orange eyes and is staring at him with a very distinctive leer. 

It shouldn’t be possible, for something to extend out of the billowing grey smoke that looks alarmingly like an _arm_. It has claws, is coal black, and is soon followed by a shoulder, then a _head_ that still has those glowing orange eyes and wide leering smile. Soon, much to Renjun’s frozen horror, a whole humanoid _thing_ has crawled out of the soup bowl on his desk and is perched there like some sort of ancient predator.

“Uh,” Renjun manages, staring at it from where he’s leaned as far back as he can in his chair. What do you even _say_ to a demon you’ve… accidentally summoned. 

“Sup,” the demon - well, Renjun is assuming it’s a demon (what else could it be?) says. “So, uh, you want me to do something or are you just lonely?” 

Do demons normally act like this? This is Renjun’s first time encountering one, and, granted, there aren’t really a lot of wiki guides to help him out here (not that he looked for them, he just _assumes_ ). 

“Aren’t you-“ Renjun’s voice does _not_ crack, he just pauses for dramatic effect. “Aren’t you supposed to, like, call me master or something?” 

The demon on his desk has a very vague outline, mostly because it kind of shivers like it’s not _really_ there, but is _definitely_ there at the same time. Renjun’s desk is currently getting singed, and so now there’s physical proof that he’s done A Big Bad Stupid. 

“I mean, sounds kind of kinky, but I guess?” the demon says, the large bright orange spots narrowing a bit as they peer into the depths of Renjun’s soul. Wait, what? “I mean, did you want me to do something, or is this just - oh wow, you contracted me and everything! This must be serious shit. Or you’re _super_ lonely. I’m gonna wager lonely. You have that kind of vibe?”

“Excuse me?” Renjun says, because truly, excuse them. Demon or no, that’s just too close to home for Renjun’s pride. “Contracted?”

“Like, I die, you die, mutually bound sort of thing,” the demon _sighs_ (maybe). Excuse them, _what?_ “Which like, okay, technically I can’t die, but you totally can. Which just means I kind of go _whooo~_ into the nether again for a while until someone decides to either summon me or breaks me out.” 

“What?” Seriously, what? Renjun doesn’t really know what the demon is talking about and mostly stopped paying attention after it said Renjun and it were _bound_ to the _death_. It sounds an awful lot like a sort of marriage vow Renjun did _not_ sign up for when took up this dare.

“I mean, it’s cool. I can just chill in your shadow or something when you don’t need me.” It’s so calm about this, which is a little disconcerting since Renjun is pretty sure he’s been panicking for the… since the ritual _worked_.

Renjun is about to ask something, or say something, or try to not scream, when the sprinkler system goes off and the fire alarm starts blaring. Granted, Renjun _should_ have probably done something about the billowing plume of smoke emitting from the ritual alter he made on his desk, but he’d been preoccupied by the demon perched on top of it. Understandable, in his opinion.

“Ugh, gross,” the demon whines, turning its face to look up at the water falling from the spigot on the ceiling. “Do you know how long that water has been in those pipes? It’s disgusting.”

“Shit!” Renjun’s computer is about five seconds away from short circuiting and he dives for it, hastily shoving it into his dresser. His calculus homework will have to suffer, but he _does_ at least scramble to shove the textbook under the bed. When he turns, the demon is just watching him, head cocked to the side, making no effort to extinguish the still billowing (and acrid smelling - oh great, that’ll be fun to deal with later) smoke from beside it. “Put that out!” Renjun snaps, waving at the soup bowl fire. 

“Whatever,” the demon says, but casually flips the bowl upside down, effectively cutting off the smoke (and probably permanently damaging Renjun’s desk. He’ll have to pay for that too, now. Fuck). “Anyway, isn’t this a bad thing? Aren’t you supposed to evacuate?” 

“Shit,” Renjun whines, looking around the room. Thankfully, Jeno is out for his composition class and isn’t due back until before dinner. That break had offered Renjun the time to, well, summon a demon and set the dorm sprinkler system off. Now he’s stuck - does he leave his dorm room in accordance with fire safety protocol? Technically, he really should, but then comes the harder decision: does he take his new contracted demon with him, or leave him in the room?

If he takes the demon with him, well, assuming the demon cooperates, he will have to answer a lot of questions, which isn’t really… a feasible option. If he leaves the demon in the room, he can’t make sure the demon doesn’t do something, like set the whole room on fire or whatever it is demons do (what do they even do?).

Renjun is stuck, so he stands in the deluge from the ceiling, getting progressively soaked, listening to the people on the floor scream as they run down the hall, and stares at the - _his_ demon. 

“I can’t leave you here,” Renjun finally says, and the demon perks up a bit.

“I mean, you can, but you don’t want to,” the demon replies. “I get it. We’re still strangers, I can see why you might not trust me yet. I am _hurt_ through.”

“You’re a demon.”

“Ow, right to the heart,” the demon wheezes, and then plunges its hand _through_ its vaporous chest. Understandably, Renjun blanches at the sight. The demon lets out a high wheezing cackle. “Okay, yeah. Probably smart move to not just leave me here. So, what _will_ you do?”

Renjun has to take it with him. Well, ideally he needs to work out some ground rules. He _thinks_ the demon will do what he says. “Lie down,” he tests.

“Nah, don’t wanna,” the demon says, a faint whine to its voice. 

“Lie down on the floor immediately!” Renjun tries again. Maybe it’s a specifics thing.

“Rude,” the demon grumbles, but does. Well, it could be _considered_ that it does, instead sort of dissolving into a sort of sloppy mass that splats onto the floor of Renjun’s room in a weird writhing puddle mass, those orange glowing dots for eyes peering up at him. 

Well, at least that’s helpful? To understand that specific commands _do_ have some effect - but then the demon is rising back out, now _not_ humanoid and definitely looking like some kind of weird lizard bird thing. It is _big_. Renjun, understandably, lets out a loud shrieking yelp and stumbles back. “Can’t you look like something _normal?”_ he shouts, tripping over his own feet. 

The demon pauses, then swivels about, bent over Renjun’s desk. It extends one smokey tendril that drips _something_ on Renjun’s daily motivational calendar. “Like that?” the demon asks, voice kind of grating in curiosity as he points to a collage brochure that Taeyong had given them all when they’d arrived. The tendril pokes at one of the faces of the models in the photos, a smiling young man with pretty crescent eyes. If Renjun remembers, the photos from the brochure are at least a decade old. At least the dude looks normal. 

“Yeah, that’s normal,” Renjun cracks out in a panic. The demon’s lower half still isn’t solid, instead oozing over the floor and threatening to get on Renjun’s socks. Gross. Scary and gross, both things that Renjun distinctly doesn’t like. “Be like that!”

“Cool,” the demon does something that might be a shrug, and then slops back into itself. A moment later, as the fire alarms continue to blare and the sprinkler water thoroughly drenches through Renjun’s shirt, a very, _very_ solid looking human rises out of the black vapor-muck. It’s not _kind of_ like the kid in the photo - it’s a carbon copy of him. Totally naked. “This good?” it asks, gesturing to the male human body put on full display for Renjun to assess. 

“I mean, you’re naked?” Renjun sounds like he’s panicking (he is panicking) and like he can’t deal with this (he really cannot). 

“So are most animals, humans are just weird,” the demon scoffs. It’s voice isn’t quite so ear shattering, like having to listen to someone talk with his ear against a food processor on high speed. It’s kind of a nice voice, though the smile the demon is giving him is just as unsettling as the one the demon gave him earlier. Its eyes still have an orange glow as well, just less intense. “So, what’s my name?” it asks, then its grin widens. “Master.”

“Don’t call me that,” Renjun instantly demands, casting around for something, _anything_ to get the demon covered. The demon might not mind, but Renjun does. 

“What about honey?” the demon suggests, then lets out a bark of a laugh when Renjun whips around to glare at it. “Ah, that’s the one then. What’s my name, honey? What do you want to call me?” 

“Don’t call me that either!” Renjun is a mix of panicked and frustrated and irritated. It’s just making him hot and fumble. Useless. Donghyuk is gonna pay for this. 

“Well, I don’t know your name so-“

“It’s Renjun!” 

“Ooh, nice! Didn’t expect that to be so easy,” the demon chuckles, the effect slightly ruined when Renjun throws a soggy towel to smack it in the face. “Fine, I guess I can go by my old name.”

“Old name?” Renjun asks, frowning as he watches the demon toss the towel in its hands. “Put that on, _around your waist to hide your dick!”_ He almost forgets the specifics. This is going to be exhausting, and he’s apparently contracted to this thing for _life_. Donghyuk is absolutely going to pay.

“The one I had the last time I was on earth,” the demon elaborates, begrudgingly tying the towel around its slim hips. “I think they called me Sylvester Stalone?”

“No, they did not,” Renjun says bluntly. 

The demon grins, clearly enjoying the reaction. “Wow, you really are catching on. Yeah, they called me Lao Tsu.”

“They also did not,” Renjun says, not entirely sure if he’s caught on how to actually call out bullshit, but hey, he’ll take his chances.

“Also true, but I do like the name. Cool guy,” the demon admits. “So unless you come up with a better name-“ 

“Jaemin,” Renjun blurts out. So what if it was the name of his crush in middle school? The demon doesn’t need to know that. 

“Nah, I don’t like it,” the demon says.

“Na Jaemin,” Renjun says, voice solidifying. He’s getting used to this (kind of). The water has slicked his hair to his skull and he’s _deeply_ uncomfortable, but the panic _has_ finally abated a little. “Your name is Na Jaemin, and you belong to me.”

“Oh, honey, you’re so romantic,” the demon crows, going so far as to tuck its hands under its chin and beam at him. “Come here!” It opens its arms as if beckoning for a hug.

“Gross, no,” Renjun leans away. The demon’s eyes flash and its smile wides in a way that mouths are _not_ supposed to and launches at him. “Nooo!” Renjun’s protest dissolves into a high scream as the demon tries to wrap itself around him.

“Oi! Renjun! What are yo-“ The door slams open as Taeyong bangs against it, soaked to the bone and looking terrified and frantic. “What are you still doing here? Both of you?” Taeyong’s face transforms quickly from worry to anger, and he strides into the room. “You should have evacuated when the alarms went off! The building could be on fire!”

“It wasn’t,” the demon cackles, apparently delighted about being dragged around by the RA of the freshman floor. “Wow, you’re _strong.”_

Taeyong pauses for the briefest of moments, giving the demon an alarmed look before he turns to Renjun. “Friend of yours?” 

“No,” Renjun whimpers pitifully. “He’s my demon.”

Taeyong blinks, staring down at him for a moment, then shakes himself and goes, “whatever works for you kids.”

“Aw, hear that, honey?” the demon, Jaemin, Renjun’s _burden,_ chirps at him, letting itself be dragged through the dorm. “He thinks we’re friends!”

“I don’t really want to know,” Taeyong says, shoving them both into the stairwell. “Just please get outside before the fire department gets here. We need to have cleared the building by now.”

“What are you doing there?” the demon asks, eyes sharp and smile wicked. 

“None of your business.” Renjun wishes he had the level of composition and inability to give a shit that Taeyong has. It looks so refreshing, so easy to live by. Renjun cannot relate. “I don’t remember you living on my floor.”

“I’m new!” the demon yells in delight. Oh no. “I’m Na Jaemin, Renjunnie’s new roommate!” Oh No.

“Huh,” Taeyong says, ushering them down the stairs swiftly. “Housing didn’t tell me we’d be getting a new resident - and Jeno and Renjun are in a double, not a triple.”

“I’m just gonna sleep under his bed,” the demon explains helpfully. Renjun is pretty sure this can’t be real. He must have gone mad back in the library. That must be it. This isn’t really happening. Then the demon lurches over to him and _bites_ him on the shoulder.

It hurts. 

He isn’t dreaming. 

Fuck.

“Fuck!” Renjun yelps. 

“Dude, I don’t want to know,” Taeyong wheezes, looking physically painted at having to endure this display. 

“I’m just displaying affection,” the demon says, then goes to drag Renjun down the stairs and succeeding in making him practically fall face first into the railing.

“Please don’t,” Taeyong and Renjun both mumble in varying degrees of synchronicity. 

The open air once the exit the stairwell out of the dorm is bitterly freezing and Renjun instantly starts to shiver. The demon beside him seems perfectly content to be mostly naked and wearing a soggy towel as he drags Renjun towards the clump of the other dorm residents. “Come on, honey, we have to join the rest of our flock,” the demon is chattering, hands wrapped around Renjun and practically hauling him over the ground. 

A familiar face pushes through the group of students all staring up at their building, listening to the alarms blaring, and Renjun feels his stomach drop when he recognizes his roommate. “Renjun!” Jeno calls out, looking worried. He’s already taking off his jacket, probably to offer him, because he’s the _nicest_ person Renjun has ever met. “Are you- oh. Hello?” 

“Why hello, fellow nice human,” the demon says, practically beaming at Jeno. Oh no. “I see that you know my lovely honey Renjun.” Oh No. Renjun can feel his blood go cold, his entire body dedicated to making his face burn in embarrassed horror. 

“Uh, yeah?” Jeno, bless him, doesn’t look at ‘Jaemin’ like he’s unhinged. “He’s my roommate.”

“What a coincidence!” the demon crows, reaching out to slap a hand on Jeno’s shoulder. “That means we’re roommates!” 

“I- what?” Jeno asks, looking just mildly confused. Renjun is ready for a hole to open up under him and swallow him, take him _far away_ from this. But no, this is real, he has to deal with this.

“This is our new roommate, Na Jaemin,” Renjun says, his voice sounding fake as fuck. “He just arrived today.”

“I didn’t know we were getting a new roommate,” Jeno says, finally looking at ‘Jaemin’ and surveying him up and down. “Wow, you must have been caught in the shower. You must be freezing.” And then, Jeno, best person Renjun has ever met, hands over his blessed jacket to Renjun’s demon and helps him wrap it around his shoulders. “Anyway, welcome to the room, I guess. Whatever is left of it after this.”

“I am _so excited,”_ the demon says, beaming in pure delight as it looks between Renjun and Jeno. “We’re going to have soooo much fun together.”

“Behave.” Renjun knows it sounds like he’s pleading (he is) and that Jeno can hear him, but he doesn’t really care. It’s a last resort.

“I make absolutely no promises,” the demon cackles, but winks. Renjun is going to have a very stressful year, he thinks. This is not at all what he signed up for when he came to university. 

Go to university, they said. Make new friends and have new experiences, they told him. Go to the library basement, Donghyuk had said. Try out this ancient ritual to see if it even works, Donghyuk had dared him.

What’s the worst that could happen?

Renjun stares into the half cackling demon with its arm wrapped around his neck and holding him plastered to its side. 

This. This is the worst that could happen. 

Renjun is never listening to other people ever again for the rest of his life.


End file.
